Having a sitemap on your website is no longer a question of ‘if’ or ‘why’, but rather about ‘when.’ That is, there are many benefits that website owners get from this simple act that can even be automated with the help of a sitemap generator. It is not only good for your SEO, but also highly recommended for a better user experience in the long run. If you have just created a new website or included fresh pages, it is paramount that you ensure the pages are easily discoverable. You can make this happen by creating a sitemap, submitting it to the search engines of your choice (start with Google) and then updating it.

This is a rather straightforward process with lots of benefits and costs nothing. There are no penalties whatsoever for submitting a sitemap to the search engines but lots of benefits to enjoy. Please note that there are two main type of sitemaps; HTML sitemaps mainly meant for use by the website visitors and XML sitemaps that target the search engines. This process applies for both sitemaps.

1. Create Sitemaps

Generating a sitemap is a clear-cut process. Even though some nerds can choose to do it manually, it is advisable to save time and minimize on errors by using a standardize sitemap generator. There are two ways this can be done; you can install a sitemap creator plugin on your website or use an online generation tool. Downloadable versions are less favorable because some people have found them a bit complex to use, but if you stick to the manual, it should work out just fine. Once you have generated the sitemap, you should then upload it.

2. Upload Your Sitemaps

Creating a sitemap is much more complex than uploading it. Nevertheless, you have to do it right to avoid errors due to poor installation. The same sitemaps can be uploaded on different search engines like Bing and Google. Just log into your webmasters backend and follow the instructions. Follow the step-by-step guide to accurately install your sitemap. You are required to verify that indeed you are the bonafide owner of the website before you can be allowed to upload the sitemap. Again, doing this isn’t difficult even for beginners. 

3. Keep Your Sitemap Updated

To ensure that search engines constantly find the content on your website, it is advisable that you always keep the sitemaps updated. Most sitemap generators can handle this when installed on the website by automatically updating it for you whenever new content is uploaded or some pages are modified.

There you have it; your sitemaps is successfully uploaded and ready to transform your website for the best. It is important to point out that how you create a sitemap will to some extend depend on the size of your website. If you have millions of URLs, you may not be able to include all of them. However, you can specify and prioritize these pages to ensure that whatever information you consider important is not left out. 

Aditionally, you can read detailed instructions on how to speed up indexing by submitting your sitemaps direction to search engines - How to submit sitemaps to Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com?